19% of males in the USA play fantasy sports and 8% of females, according to the study.

San Francisco, CA – Fantasy sports participation has grown over 60 percent the past four years as over 32 million people now actively playing in the U.S. and Canada, new research conducted by Ipsos for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) shows. This finding shows the highest participation numbers in the history of fantasy sports. One in five males played fantasy sports in the last year.

Based on the proportion of survey respondents who report having played fantasy sports in the past 12 months in the U.S. (12%) and in Canada (13%), the total projected number of fantasy sports players aged 12 and older is approximately 32 million. The number of fantasy players has increased over 60 percent from a 2007 Ipsos study that showed 19.4 million fantasy sports players. A 2010 study from Ipsos showed approximately 30.6 million people played in the U.S. and Canada.

“The fantasy sport industry continues to grow at a strong rate even through tough economic times,” said FSTA President Paul Charchian. “The combination of great passion for the hobby and inexpensive participation has made fantasy sports very recession resilient. We’re delighted to see participation numbers continue to grow.”

Overall, the survey shows that United States’ participation in fantasy sports has increased from those that played in 2010 (11%) while Canada’s participation is down slightly from 2010 (14%). As is usually the case, in the United States and Canada more males (19% and 20%, respectively) than females (8% and 5%, respectively) have participated in fantasy sports in the past year.

It is also interesting to note that college educated, full-time employees are more likely to take part in fantasy sports than their less educated and lesser employed counterparts in both the United States and Canada. Nearly two in ten (18%) college educated Americans have recently played fantasy sports vs. one in ten (10%) of the non college educated population. Similarly, in the United States, 19% of those who have full time employment have played in the past year vs only 11% of the unemployed. In Canada, the story is nearly identical with college educated people twice as likely to play fantasy sports as those without a university degree (22% vs. 11%) and 18% of those full time employed participating vs 11% of the unemployed.